Art Cullen

A State of Pollution

As if Iowa's air quality isn't bad enough, the federal government
wants to let ethanol plants further foul the air. The Environmental
Protection Agency proposes to more than double the allowed pollutants
that ethanol plants may spew.

Our air is filthy with ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and heaven knows
what else. We used to say that Iowa was a great place to live because
of clean air and water. We can make that claim no more.

Here we are arguing about whether smoking should be allowed at
the corner bar, when a burgeoning industry is belching formaldehyde
and toluene on a daily basis -- up to 100 tons of the stuff per
facility per year. The EPA would increase the limit to 250 tons.

The EPA says it is loosening pollution rules to allow for
increased ethanol production.

Iowa, king of corn and ethanol, has been stampeding into ethanol
production under the current rules led by conglomerates Cargill and
ADM. We can't build plants fast enough. So why increase the pollution
limits?

Because this is an agricultural business, we are told. Ethanol
plants should not be treated as chemical factories, the industry
says, even though they are in fact chemical factories.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., has been pushing for the rule relaxation
for several months. Thune notes that corn milling plants that produce
ethanol products for human consumption operate under the higher
pollution threshold. So, he proposes holding fuel ethanol plants to
the same standard.

The answer is not to allow more pollution. The answer should be
to make corn milling plants producing ethanol for human consumption
meet stricter standards.

We continue to treat the agri-industrial complex as if it were
just a bunch of yeoman farmers tending their oat fields with horses.
In fact, the ethanol industry is just that -- an industry -- that
should be held to the same pollution rigors as a coal-fired power
plant. The same goes for the livestock industry: Why should we give
corporate integrators immunity from pollution rules? That is
precisely what EPA did by entering into consent decrees with the
likes of Smithfield Foods during a multi-year air monitoring
regimen.

We have non-Iowa investors building ethanol plants that could
cause lasting harm to our environment. One farmer-founded ethanol
production company in North Central Iowa wants to sell a stake to
Australians. Who's next: the United Arab Emirates? What do they care
for our well-being?

This originally appeared as an editorial in The Storm Lake
(Iowa) Times.